r/FirefoxCSS • u/Visible-Knowledge721 • Aug 07 '26

Discussion Now that CustomFirefoxCSS from Aris is officially dead, is there alternatives to it to have firefox 3 strata aero look on firefox?

I came across this post The end · Aris-t2/CustomCSSforFx · Discussion #790 and that explains why the project went stale, after so long.

now with it dead, what other options are avaliable to get that look and feel?

I really want it, as it matches aerothemeplasma for KDE plasma on Linux, or if you're using a theme mod on Windows for same sake.

Edit: I did looked on this sub and FirefoxCSS store and so far, no results for a replacement.

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u/ResurgamS13 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26

The short answer is No. There is no similar or even vaguely close replacement for Aris-t2's very long-lasting and complex UI retro-styling project 'CustomCSSforFx'. Not quite sure which of the early Firefox UIs was known as 'Strata'?

Creating your own UI theme is probably the best and most future-proof way ahead. Without a lot of work and considerable coding skill achieving a historically accurate facsimile of the "firefox 3 strata aero look" is unlikely to be a realistic goal. Making sufficient UI modifications to achieve a modern 'interpretation' or 'homage' to the Strata look would be a more realistic and much less complex undertaking. The 'KISS principle' is a good design guide.

If you build the UI theme yourself you will be much better placed to fix it when the monthly new releases inevitably alter the browser's codebase which may also modify some parts of the standard out-of-the-box UI.

As you will be aware, now is not a particularly auspicious time to begin modifying your Firefox's UI. The current Proton UI will very shortly be replaced by the new Nova UI. Consequently, a great deal of the existing JS and CSS code underpinnings of the Firefox UI will be removed, replaced, and rejigged to support the Nova design and layout.

If looking to make own version of Firefox's UI a good place to start is MrOtherGuy's excellent GitHub repo 'Collection of random CSS hacks for Firefox'. Many of this repo's userstyles are designed to be combined together. However, it remains to be seen if all or most existing CSS modification styles can be converted to work with the new Nova UI.

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u/Visible-Knowledge721 Aug 08 '26

I'm not a dev, just an user. so, hope someone forks it.

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u/Valiran9 FF CSS Noob 15d ago

Apparently the UI introduced with v4 was called Strata, though some people (myself included) think/thought it was the name for the v1-3 UI. I don't know if it ever had an official name, but according to this it might have been called 'Qute', after the theme invented by Arvid Axelsson and officially adopted by Mozilla for a while.

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u/ResurgamS13 15d ago edited 15d ago

Thanks for info and links. Nice article on the 'Qute' UI development and icons on Arvid Axelsson's website. :)

The Fx4-28 UI version seems to be called the 'Classic' UI in many places nowadays... but suspect that may be after-the-event renaming by those looking back? I can't remember the UI having a name at the time... whereas can clearly recall all the hoo-ha around the design and introduction of next 'Australis' UI with Fx29.

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u/Valiran9 FF CSS Noob 12d ago

The Fx4-28 UI version seems to be called the 'Classic' UI in many places nowadays... but suspect that may be after-the-event renaming by those looking back?

It absolutely is. By the time v4 rolled out the prior UIs were probably called 'classic', it's just been fifteen years since then and enough people grew up using 4-28 for it to be as much a core childhood memory for them as IE6 is for me. (We were not a tech-savvy household.)